Poem tbd Flashcards
these are all mega basic outlines to all the poems in case one has forgotten any!! (30 cards)
Rain
- Blank verse, 10 syllables in every line but no rhyme scheme
- Repitition of the word “rain” to show how rain saturates everything. Visual imagery.
- Enjambment also showing visual imagery
- Themes:
- loneliness, “and solitude, and me”
- religion, “remembering again that I shall die for neither hear the rain nor give it thanks For washing me cleaner than I have been” - going to war has purified him as he has paid for his sins however war in itself is sinful so he is neither going to heaven nor hell. The rain is god’s forgiveness.- "Born into solitude" We are born on our own, and we die on our own.
Death is inevitable, “remembering again”, “love of death” - juxtaposition. This could suggest he wishes for death, alternatively he could be longing for the death of war.
Aspens
- Personification of nature to show man vs nature. Nature “talks” across man made objects and we can not prevent the inevitable. Nature will not be oppressed by man.
- 6 quatrains showing visual imagery of man vs nature
- The aspens represent the decision of what to not/what not to do. This is a direct link with Robert Frost, as Edward joined the army because of Frost.
- There is a strong sense of place using personal language such as “above the inn, the smithy, and the shop” shows Thomas has close memories to said place.
- Lexical set of conflict; “cross roads”, “hammer, shoe, and anvil” which could also resemble pain and the theme of man vs nature. “the random singing” could be a distraction from the conflict.
- “silent smithy, a silent inn” repitition, sibilance and parallel structure to show conflict and perhaps again distraction.
- the theme of distraction and perhaps escapism from his decision strengthens as the poem progresses, “whatever wind blows” is a labiovelar statement, for example.
- there really is too much to talk about but u get the gist x
- alternative rhyme scheme as he is, as you may have guessed, conflicted
- sibilance is used to replicate the sound of the trees BUT ALSO the constant voice in the back of his head
ALTERNATIVELY lots of war metaphors
- “until their last leaves fall from the top” = soldiers fallen
- “empty as sky, with every other sound” = loneliness of being war
- “over all sorts of weather, men, and times” perilous journey of war
The Path
-The path represents life
-childhood innocence and imagination are impossible to sustain: “but the road is houseless ad leads not to school, to see a child is rare there”
-Life is wearing and the older you become, the less pleasure it is possible to find, we may buy things to hide the fact that we are growing old: “that tries to cover roots and crumbling chalk with gold, olive, and emerald, but in vain” religious link of gold olive and emerald to the gifts the three wise men gave jesus
-poetry is the art of trying to regain some of the childhood innocence and imagination
-symbolic journey
-maturity
-growing as a person reflects the journey
-new experiences
-the poem is a paradox in writing about childhood imagination. Thomas demonstrates that he still has retained his
- no rhyme scheme to show path is neverending
- the last word is “ends”
lots of enjambment which represents a path, path means the possibilities
Roads
DEIFICATION
- “roads go on..and is gone” - how there are several roads we can take but we forget about the opportunities we couldve had. Link with Aspens.
- ARCHAIC LANGUAGE
- deceptively long poem
- each quatrain is ABBA and could represent every choice we could make in life.
- very personal poem, mentions Helen and Wales
- guilt of war
- ” heavy is the tread of the living” he is haunted by the memories of the dead he has met
- the road is his life journey, he is looking forward to the next part of his life
- life can take things from you, whether you want them to leave or not. Link with Words, who is really in control?
- he misses Helen, he feels life has taken his love from him, “and it is her laughter at morn and night I hear”
Lob
1 stanza: coloquial
met a lob, old, experienced, how Thomas ends up
anti authoritarian, believes in full equality before civil liberation
introduces robert frost style dialogue
makes the lob seem real
CONTEXT: Thomas was in fear of the rural landscape of england changing due to the war, he loved “the people”
2: rural life
Local characters
3: legend, suggestion of other men, repetition of people being alike
Typical man
Personal journey, taking us with him
4: historical figure, folklore stereotype
pride
lob has given everything what it is today aka nicknames for flowers
landscape
language
“folk do long as a wet weak”
identity
mega exageration
5: lob will continue, as all things do
desperation to preserve the lob’s culture
Lights Out
Sleep is a metaphor for the deep forest Sleep is escapism " here love ends, despair, ambition" Death and sleep are both natural events a a b c c b - natural and unnatural occurences
And You, Helen
He feels as if he has not treated Helen as he shoud’ve, he was not there for most of her life and her beauty. Now, she is old. “ I would give you youth”
- he feels as if he has wasted her time
Sombre tone, perhaps regretful. A bit of both. He is sad he was not there for most of her life, but happy he has her.
Title could suggest two things, as if he has forgotten her or she is so important that he has left her until last.
He loves her very much, and has evidently missed her very much. He said “I would give you back yourself” suggesting that he had taken a part of her with him when he went to war and she was not whole without him.
Last two lines are rhyming couplet, lost himself in his depression, love and distress. He’s worried he can’t love her right.
In Memorian (Easter, 1915)
It’s actually tiny.
“Far from home” = distress
“flowers left thick at nightfall” distress
flowers = joy
“thick at nightfall” not being picked as no one is there to pick them, they are left to die
flowers are used for symbolic reasons, “poppies” to show the fallen soldiers. CONTEXT
Easter!! God gave up his life for us, so did the soldiers.
This is no petty case of right or wrong
Immediate connotation of war
3 qualities of a true patriot:
- nationalistic
- pride
- maybe ignorance
“I hate not Germans, no grow hot with love of Englishmen” not typically patriotic. He is not judging anyone for their nationality. He has no passion for war.
“My hatred for the Kaiser is love true”
- he just hates war really
- juxtaposition of hate and love, dichotomy
He hates the leader, but not the people who are guilt-tripped into war. Link with All Day It Has Rained..
“Little I know, of care if, being dull, I shall miss something that historians can rake out of the ashes” - history forevery changes and is heavily dependant on perspective
War only destroys things, whereas historians see something in the bigger picture. They do not have the experience of soldiers. They focus on the politics.
“She is all we know and live by, and we trust she is good and must endure, loving her so and as we love ourselves, we hate her for” - people are “tarred with the same brush”
He is proud of who he is, and how England has shaped him. However, he is not proud of being at war.
Themes:
war
love
religion, “God save England”
nature of memory, “Little I know or care if being dull, I shall miss something that historians can rake out of the ashes”
Natural world: “From one the weather shall rise clear and grey”
transcience
supernatural and gothic “two witches’ cauldrons roar”
justice
There is no structure really. No breaths to show the forever changing history.
Home
It is linked with Sacco and his son, as both are about acceptance.
“We had, I and the birds song, our memory” Birds fly away from home however, they will come back just like Eddie :D
He is realising that he is welcomed.
Acceptance of the cycle of life. Transcience/ Cycle of depression.
Routine of life
visual imagery
tired of life, but hey ho, he is accepting of it.
Digging
Punctuation, long words
Literally about someone digging
Sensory poem
structure is important; visual imagery, quatrains are uniform, the rhythm is consistent
a journey
natural world = escapism, we can not truly escape death or war
“the dead, the waste, the dangerous”
“the spade, wounds the root of the tree” war hurts. Life, how the tree begun. War ruins reality, changes everything. Families are changed.
The Jungle
I cant be bothered to type it all out. It’s about lack of faith in humanity.
The Trumpet
2 stanzas - 10 lines
- 12 lines
repitition of the first line of stanza 1, repitition of the last line of stanza one and two.
In war, the trumpet shows peace. A crtitic said that perhaps Eddie is asking people to “rise up” against the newborn world, the world created by world war one.
“rise up! rise up!” demanding tone, imperative.
the opening could also call to awaken, getting rid of starry images and romantic notions, “banish it!”. This notion continues in the next stanza, which one is urged to listen to the clarity of the trumpets. The clarity of the right thing to do. Nothing except the truth that the world is more beautiful than anything else. Inspiration from romantic poets such as Keats and Wordsworth.
“chases the dreams of men” men are not allowed dreams, why should they when they are going to war? Link with Path and All Day It Has Rained..
“the print of last night’s lovers” he misses normality.
2nd stanza: escapism, appreciate the earth, be forgiving not fighting.
Words
Different amount of lines in each stanza to show the complexity and unpredictability of words, but also people.
There are lots and lots of words, but not enough time. There is never enough time, is there?
He has a strong relationship with the language, especially the English language. Edward is nationalistic.
He wants the words to choose him. The words are more powerful than him, but are the words in control or is he? Both.
Transcient state
He feels he is only as good as his work, he uses mundane descriptions such as “a crack in a wall or a drain” to describe himself as he is nothing without his work. Eddie commonly used his work as escapism.
Lots of similies, neverending words
Time is mentioned frequently, “oldest year” time is a lost and foreign concept and in a way so are words.
Our language reflects how we love the earth, showing ageing and continuous thought. A flowing stream of consciousness. One thing will associate with the other. Funny how everything is connected.
He isn’t content with life, he’s searching for it. “Nightingale with no wings” in relation to “beauty of the nightingales wings” by Keats, Edward wishes to be content without the wings of a nightingale.
“Fixed and free”, despite being free, there are limitations. Edward is never truly going to reach the parameter of his thought. The entire structure is fixed and free, it is stuck in the format of a poem but it means so, so much more. Poetry is what you make it.
Tall Nettles
Natural world, two quatrains.
Man vs nature
Nature has dominance over humanity.
Unconventional beauty.
Nature is effortless, nature is more efficient, effectively and generally better. Edward is in love with nature, it is escapism.
He likes the dust because it is untouched by man, and let’s be honest, not many things are. WE ruin everything.
“sweetness of a shower” sibilance, onomatopoeia, reflecting the rain.
If I should ever by chance
Unconventional sonnet
Resolve forming throughout the poem
Sense of passing through generations, a legacy of appreciation of the natural world. Edward wants his daughter to appreciae the violets more than he does.
Conditional sentence; “If” and “but”. Very cute sentiment.
A Private
Nature, war, isolation
The Title: A Private, generic, pun, shows the anonymity of the private literally living a private life
he was killed in war and nobody knew him or where he died its pretty sad
comparison between the ploughman in nature and dying in France
no one knows where he slept of where he is now
he is now and always was, in a way, a part of nature
relevance being he is one with the earth and now hes dead so he’s actually a part of the earth
when you are dead, you are finally free
Edward’s only true love is nature.
Old Man
Your memory does what it wants, usually tracks back to emotional states.
He’s saying hes frustrated with everything that makes him “him”, he can not remember. It’s all to do with perspective.
old man // lad’s love is usually used in bouquets, it’s a quiet plant and usually ignored :( like me :)
he loves the concept of the herb but not the actual herb itself. Childhood innocence and memories are a major theme of this poem.
The Combe
A sense of place and history.
Impending doom and nature, inevitibility, repitition of the word “dark”
“singing birds” = positivity
The badger: war destroys things that have been there for a very long time, edward was particularly worried about the destruction of english scenary
history: lexical set to show history as repitition of events and words
romantic theme
all things that have happened for a long time can easily be destroyed - even loved ones can be taken.
Atmosphere: visual, vivid imagery, sense of doom.
The Owl
Themes:
A sense of place
the natural world
war
4 quatrains, showing the exhaustion of war
lots of punctuation used, semi colo betwenen sections;
“Against the Northwind; tred, yet so that rest”
1) Scenery, clearly abused environment, “cold yet had heat within me that was proof” heat is symbolic of hope inside of him.
“Against the Northwind” is a literal war.
2) His travels could be him going back home from being damaged by the war,
“ a roof”, “the inn” distraction of home and loved ones
AO5. 2) the night was quiet which is symbolic of silence due to war , owl represents the world?
“most meloncholy cry” repitition of cry, sad, world is sad, war is sad. Sad.
3) “No merry note, nor cause of merriment” from adjective to verb, sombre tone
“But no one telling me plain what I escaped and others could not, that night, as in I went”
As the teams head-brass
lower case to show a relaxed tone
theme: love and loss, natural world, a sense of place
“Every time the horses turned instead of treading me down” impending doom, can’t escape war, can’t escape death
“About the weather, next about the war” war follows him about
Conversational tone inspired by robert frost
dialogue - link with lob
Discussion over what will happen after the war
people dont have much to talk about except for the war, which could be the reasoning behind the prolonged silences.
Discussion of whether going to war is worth it. Comparing personal loss to others’ loss. “Have many gone from here?” , “Yes”, “Many lost?”, “Yes: a good few”
Split into 3 sections, only 2 are prominent.
2 stanzas, when the dialogue ends is also when the new section starts, which is a reflection of time passing. The final stanza mirrors the first stanza which helps us see that life continues even when war is happening.
Beauty
Rhyming couplets, simplicity of thought and want
Wasted life.
Will any of us be remembered; “and yet I almost dare to laugh Because I sit and frame an epitaph”
“But, thought I am like a river at fall of evening when it seems that never has the sun lighted it” similie of a river, river at the fall of evening.
Up in the wind
Natural world Conversational tone from Robert frost Dialogue link with lob Blinking long poem Colloquial Basically how we will always end back where we grew up Personal language "the white horse" Identity A sense of place Transience Link with how Edward was worried about the natural landscape changing due to the war "That widow had married another blacksmith and kept on the business" - life has to carry on
Man and Dog
Conversational poem which is inspired by Robert Frost
colloquial language; brolly
enjambement
goes from talking about domestic daily activities to talking of war, the change is raher abrupt. This is to show that life must go on when war is upon us, but also that war must be accepted as something that is happening.
The entire poem is one conversation to show normality
No rhyme scheme to show the flowing transition of the conversation
